City gets license to kill egrets as last resort

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The city of Carrollton is teaming up with homeowners to keep egrets out of a neighborhood that has been invaded by the birds for at least four years.

The city distributed 22 kits filled with air horns, balloons, streamers and other ways to keep the cattle egrets from nesting near Chamberlain and Addington drives in the northern part of Carrollton.

Carrollton Residents Battle the Birds

The City of Carrollton has armed residents with a kit to ward off cattle egrets that invade their neighborhoods, as a last resort the city has a license to kill up to 25 of the federally protected birds that have become a nuisance. (Published Thursday, March 15, 2012)

"We have become experts in how to gently remove birds from our neighborhood," resident Liz Brown said.

Last year, residents dealt with bird droppings that blanketed the neighborhood. The stench filled the streets.

Carrollton Residents Await Return of Nasty Egrets

Residents along Chamberlain Drive in Carrollton are not eagerly awaiting the return of egrets that make a mess of their neighborhood. (Published Monday, Jan. 30, 2012)

"It was so bad from May until October, I could not sit on my patio," Brown said. "We were prisoners in our own homes. We're not wanting that to happen again."

Scott Hudson, the city's environmental services director, said he hopes the birds can be scared off by sound, colors and flashes of light.

Preventing an Egret Invasion

The City of Carrollton is taking action to keep an Egret invasion from happening again. (Published Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011)

If the deterrents don't work, the city has a license granted by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife to kill up to 25 of the federally protected birds.

"It's not a tool to remove all egrets, but a tool of last resort if we exhausted every visual deterrent " Hudson said.

City environmental services crews patrol the area at dawn and dusk because that's the time the birds usually appear.